Monday, December 27, 2010

Coney Island connoisseur and historian Charles Denson honors one of Coney Island's oldest buildings that no longer exists that will soon be demolished. The building is currently in the state of being demolished by Thor Equities. They, along with the city, was not interested in preserving a few of these old buildings in Coney Island to create a historic district. The other buildings that were of historic significance; the Shore Hotel and the Coney Island Bank Building are gone.

In this video, Charles Denson gives us a brief yet detailed account of the Henderson building and what it meant for Coney Island. The building was originally established by Fred Henderson in 1899 as the Henderson Music Hall. It featured top vaudeville and musical acts of its era. In the 30's Stillwell Avenue was extended to the boardwalk cutting through half the Henderson building. Parts of the stage area remained unused for over seventy years until it was rediscovered and brought up to current codes and opened as a nightclub called Velocity. In the video Denson shows wonderful images of the space inside shortly before its impending doom. Denson describes that the renovated space would've been a great performance space if the building was saved. But unfortunately, Coney Island has recently been desecrated by a greedy developer in cohoots with the city to, once again, do what right for business and not what's right for the community, the city, or the world.

Update: This post was rewritten to clarify that the building still stands though it faces a certain demolition. Only a miracle, at this point, could help save it.